Thank you for visiting today. If this is your first visit, take your time and look around. I have plenty of information and resources available to you. If you are a return visitor, thank you. I would love to hear from you and tell you how I can serve all your real estate needs.

Toby Crawford - Guides and Resources

The Ultimate Selling Buzz Word: Curb Appeal

Chances are, in the mind of a potential buyer, your home is not the unique gem that you might think see it as. It can be hard to understand that, but most homes have a pretty basic structure that might change from home to home but does not vary greatly overall. If you are aiming at creating that elusive buzz word, curb appeal, understanding that and playing up the strengths you do have can help you tremendously.

Curb appeal can help you cut through a lot of the hassle of selling your home buy motivating buyers to want your property before even setting foot inside the real estate. With a surplus of interested buyers, you can skip the process of even hiring a real estate agent and simply sell it to one of the interested parties that has demonstrated interest in your property.

So while curb appeal is an ever-changing characteristic, there are some basic things you can do to help your home show better and look better to everyone that drives by. These can be simple things like adding shutters around windows that might look out on to your porch and can be as complex as adding new products to the front of the home like a refurbished garage door or better looking porch railing.

Windows Windows make up a lot of the expense of a home, but are sometimes neglected when it comes to dressing up your property for potential sale. Adding things like shutters to the exterior of your property or repainting trim on each window can make your home look words different. Paint especially is an inexpensive input for your property, so putting in a little manual labor can make a big difference in your curb appeal.

Landscaping Landscaping is perhaps the aspect of a home that most people think of when they hear the term curb appeal. If your front lawn has gone with mowing and is chock full of weeds, you can guarantee that a buyer will have a slightly negative feeling about your home before ever setting foot in your real estate.

You can combine the landscaping and window aspects of your home by making sure that your bushes and other items are trimmed away from window beds. These may look like they were planted with good intentions when your home was built a few decades ago, but letting light into your property and showing off the amount of windows will ultimately do more to increase your curb appeal.

Walkways Your driveway and other walkways that lead to your home serve as a visual line that grabs the buyer’s eye and directs it toward your home. If a walkway or garage is full of holds and has not been cared for, this travel of the eye will only hurt the curb appeal of your property.

Take advantage of the way a buyer will look at your home and pay extra attention to the walkways and driveway. If you have some nice landscaping elements around a path to your home that might wind its way to your front door, you will have almost instant curb appeal and will set your home apart from the other 50 properties a buyer might be shown that day.

Common sense is the biggest asset when it comes to developing curb appeal. If something on the exterior of your home is broken or dirty, fix or clean it. If you drive by and wince at a particular eye sore in the front yard, remove it. Put yourself in a buyer’s shoes and ask yourself what you would want to see when you drive up to your new home and what you wouldn’t. Change accordingly and you will help yourself develop some elusive curb appeal.

Broker Reciprocity is the current compilation of active listings of all Broker Reciprocity subscribers except those listings where the seller or the seller's agency has opted out of Internet publication by so indicating on the listing contract or by written notice to the Multiple Listing Service.